


had I known but yesterday, you’d be no more be my own

by aunt_zelda



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood Drinking, Blood Magic, Changelings, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Magic, Manipulation, Other, Sleep Groping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:54:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25399483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_zelda/pseuds/aunt_zelda
Summary: There is an inn at the crossroads.Some people avoid it for its filth, its stench, its crooked innkeeper and his boisterous wife and grubby children. Some people’s feet take them past, down another road and to another inn. Some can sense the old warnings still in their blood.The inn stands at the crossroads not only of two mortal roads, but between realms of human and faerie.
Relationships: Cosette Fauchelevent/Marius Pontmercy, Cosette Fauchelevent/Éponine Thénardier, Marius Pontmercy/Éponine Thénardier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	had I known but yesterday, you’d be no more be my own

**Author's Note:**

  * For [within_a_dream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/gifts).



> I was very taken by your changeling prompt and wanted to write you a treat. I hope you enjoy it.

There is an inn at the crossroads. 

Some people avoid it for its filth, its stench, its crooked innkeeper and his boisterous wife and grubby children. Some people’s feet take them past, down another road and to another inn. Some can sense the old warnings still in their blood. The inn stands at the crossroads not only of two mortal roads, but between realms of human and faerie. 

Eponine knows they do not belong. Eponine knows not to fetch water from the well at night. 

Cosette is at the inn now. Cosette’s mother sends money to clothe and feed her. Her parents dress Eponine in fine clothes and feed her until she is plump enough to fit the gowns, while Cosette resembles her broom more by the day. When Cosette’s mother returns they shall pass Eponine into her loving arms and Cosette will stay in the inn at the crossroads. Cosette will stay until she withers away to nothing. 

One day a man comes. He shines bright with holy, burning light and their lies cannot ensnare him. He sees Eponine for a fake and Cosette for the truth. He carries Cosette away. 

Eponine rends her gowns in rage. 

~*~

Eponine is older now. She slips in and out of shadows. The inn decayed and they had to seek new haunts. Others lurk with them now, huddling together for protection against the rising tide of humans bathed in holy words and holy light. 

There is a boy now, Marius. He speaks beautifully and laughs beautifully and is enticingly alive. If this were the old days Eponine would ride to him on a white horse and carry him far from this dreary world to be hers forever and a day. 

It is not to be so. She can scarcely get Marius to look at her directly some days. Eponine’s powers are weak and fading with every year of holy light and metal and distancing from the old ways. 

Cosette is back. Marius loves Cosette. 

Eponine spent years trying to be Cosette, become her in shape and form and face and sound enough to fool even her own mother. A boy who’s only seen her at a distance should be easy. Cosette’s father will take her across the sea, and Marius will take Eponine, and all will be well. 

It is not to be. 

~*~

There are many ways that Eponine’s story might end. 

In one story, the harsh and cruel reminder that cold steel kills as surely as if she were mortal is her end. She bleeds and dies and Marius weeps for her, finally seeing her at long last.

In another story, Eponine crosses the sea in desperation with her ragged family. They find a new world with new ways and new legends. Eponine treads on new streets and learns new spells to weave. 

In the last story, Eponine skulks in shadows alone until Cosette’s child is born. Then Eponine sneaks in to whisper old songs and secrets into the babe’s ears. She steals the babe for her own, as they did in the old days, and Cosette’s perfect life is shattered into a million pieces. 

~*~

Eponine’s story does not end. Instead it begins. 

It begins with her sneaking into Cosette’s room at night and crawling into bed beside her. She breathes in time with Cosette and remembers how to shape her face, her form, her lips. She nips gently at Cosette’s shoulder, finding sweet blood just below the surface. 

When Cosette wakes she will have a slight mark upon her, but she will not know it for the elf-bolt that it represents. Nobody nowadays recognizes such things. 

When Cosette marries, she will fall fast asleep on her wedding night. Eponine will slip out from underneath the bed. Marius will see two women, one blinding with light and one fading in shadow, and be unable to tell them apart. 

After a time, Eponine will find it difficult to tell where she ends and Cosette begins.


End file.
